Sate my craving: A live session with Samantha Crain
Lately I am completely enamored with the music of Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers and their Confiscation EP (out now on Ramseur Records).
(out now on I’d written about it a few weeks ago but since then have continued to reach for the CD over and over again, immersing myself into her introspective storytelling and her gorgeously husky and unvarnished voice. When I first wrote about Crain, I quoted a reviewer who said she evokes “Judy Garland singing Neutral Milk Hotel songs,” and the more I listen, the more I think that may be the most perfect comparison a music writer has ever scrobbled together.
The Chicago music blog Hear Ya recently featured Crain & Co. on an acoustic session of five songs, including several not on the Confiscation EP. Here are two songs from the session; you can get the rest here.
Traipsing Through The Aisles (live) – Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers
Rising Sun (live) – Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers
I only wish for a live version of my favorite song off the album, the devastatingly gorgeous “In Smithereens, The Search For Affinity.” That cut alone is worth buying the EP for — the shimmery haze of melody that’s reminiscent of some of my favorite Mazzy Star, and breathtakingly stark and resonant lyrics like these simple ones:
“I won’t say I’m needy
but I won’t say I’m fine
… Can’t we just be two troubled souls in need?
And nothing more to speak of?“
Name: Heather Browne
Thanks for checking out the session, Heather. Samantha could sing the phone book and it would sound amazing. Luckily she can write great songs as well.
Hopefully she starts getting the appreciation she deserves.
Oz — September 7, 2008 @ 1:42 pm
Well can count one new set of appreciative ears here.
I am not an easy sell for female voices and am surprised by how much I like her. The songs you posted and linked us to have done their job, I’m curious now and will have to go get the EP.
AH — September 7, 2008 @ 8:21 pm